Air China to Launch Chengdu-Colombo Route

Air China announced it will begin new non-stop service between Chengdu, China and Colombo, Sri Lanka on February 10. The carrier will operate the service four times a week, using Airbus A330 aircraft.

Flights will depart Chengdu at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and arrive in Colombo at 9:50 p.m. From Colombo, flights will depart at 11:10 p.m., also on the same four days, and arrive in Chengdu at 6:40 p.m. the next day.

Air China will offer all first- and business-class passengers free chauffeured transfer to downtown Chengdu from the airport for on the new flights. The carrier will also provide free hotel stays and transfers between the hotel and airport for passengers with flights connections within 24 hours in Chengdu, as well as a free stay at a luxury hotel for first- and business class passengers with international flight connections in Chengdu.

The new route is the first to connect the cities of Chengdu and Colombo, and is Air China’s fourth service to Southeast Asia, after Kathmandu, Mumbai, and Bangalore.

The coronavirus is now affecting 104 countries and territories across the globe and many travelers are postponing or cancelling their travel plans as a result.
In some cases, a traveler is holding off because travel to his destination is simply not possible due to quarantine and containment rules; in others, it’s simply a desire not to go somewhere where one might end up with the coronavirus or trapped in a quarantined …

In early May, Warren Buffett divested all of his investment firm’s holdings in the four major U.S. airlines, warning that the “world has changed” for the aviation industry due to the coronavirus crisis. In mid May, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said he saw a bumpy road ahead for the airline industry and predicted that a major carrier would not survive 2020 as a result.
It appears Buffett and Calhoun were on …